Bengaluru, June 4 (IANS) The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India's largest research and development organisation that runs 37 laboratories, has declared a financial emergency.

Its Director General, Girish Sahni, has said that out of Rs 40.63 billion (Rs 4,063 crore) budgetary allocation for the current year (2017-18), after meeting the salaries, pensions, capital and other commitments, "the balance available for laboratory allocations and various new research projects" is only Rs 2.02 billion (Rs 202 crore). Of this, a sum of Rs 1.58 billion (Rs 158 crore) has already been allocated.

"If we were to release further sums we will be left with no funds to support new research projects," he has in a letter informed all the laboratory directors. "This is the stark reality."